Civic leaders last night came out in defence of their city after workers at a Dorset-based clothing company said they would rather face the sack than relocate there.

The New Look employees faced redundancy when the company announced its Weymouth distribution centre was set to close later this year but were offered the chance to relocate to a new centre in Newcastle-under-Lyme in Stoke.

The workers were also offered hefty moving expenses and early retirement if they accepted and moved to Staffordshire.

However, of the 550 workers, only 40 decided to take up the company's offer, with many complaining the area was too overcrowded and dull. The 510 remaining employees opted to take redundancy in order to remain in Dorset.

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A Stoke-on-Trent City Council spokesman said: "Stoke-on-Trent is one of the greenest cities in Europe and attracts an enormous number of tourists every year.

"We would invite the people of Weymouth to come and visit for themselves.

"It is interesting as to how to respond as we welcome new jobs in Stoke-on-Trent. It was probably a bit more than people not wanting to come to Stoke-on-Trent.

"They may have had family there and maybe some had families with two jobs and could not move."

But some Weymouth workers remain unconvinced.

New Look delivery driver Mel Morris, aged 46, from Weymouth said: "You cannot really compare it with down here. You have everything you could want.

"I was in Birmingham for about six months and did not like it at all up there. It was a bit crowded for me.

"There is a big difference in the weather, it is a lot warmer here. I would not say it was grim up north, it is just a different way of life.

"The redundancy packages they have given us are amazing. There has been retraining. They have done as much as they can."

New Look supply chain director Alan Osborne said: "New Look used to be a company that was predominantly southern based.

"We are a growing business and also the growth has been much further north and we need a central point of distribution. That is the key reason for relocating."